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The Rational Response Squad is a group of atheist activists who impact society by changing the way we view god belief. This site is a haven for those who are pushing back against the norm, and a place for believers of gods to have their beliefs exposed as false should they want to try their hand at confronting us.

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Rational Squad deleted from YouTube

Posted on: March 23, 2007 - 3:18pm

OdwinOddball

Posts: 4

Joined: 2007-03-12

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Rational Squad deleted from YouTube

Was browsing through the RRS videos on YouTube a bit ago, when I started getting " This account is suspended." messages when trying to views the video list. And it looks like all the Gisburne related clips have been removed...

Would it be possible to make available videos not infringing copyright, as I’m assuming some were for the ban to occur, to be downloaded on the RRS website. So that they could then be posted up again on Youtube by RRS members. I for one would happily, given opportunity, post the Lynchburg lecture clips.

These videos need to put back on you tube as soon as possible due to the volume of people that might be able to see them.

Would it be possible to make available videos not infringing copyright, as I’m assuming some were for the ban to occur, to be downloaded on the RRS website. So that they could then be posted up again on Youtube by RRS members. I for one would happily, given opportunity, post the Lynchburg lecture clips.

These videos need to put back on you tube as soon as possible due to the volume of people that might be able to see them.

I've reposted because ihope there was more chnace of a reply if i replied to a RRS staff (assuming you are).

The latest attempt involves Uri Geller, the purported spoon-bending "psychic" who is trying to suppress a video on YouTube that claims Geller is a fraud and demonstrates sleight-of-hand tricks he could have used. The video was posted by the Rational Response Squad, a group of skeptics who take a scientific approach toward evaluating supernatural claims, and rely in part on YouTube to get the word out.

Caption: The offending video

Geller's U.K. company, Explorologist Ltd., sent a DMCA takedown notice to YouTube, claiming copyright in a video posted by the squad. It depicted magician James Randi, a prominent skeptic of the supernatural, showing how Geller could have performed "magic" tricks. (Some of his critics go farther, alleging that Geller is little more than a successful con artist.)

There was one problem: Geller doesn't seem to own the video. It's nearly 14 minutes long, and Geller's company apparently can claim copyright in only three seconds of it, a brief excerpt that would likely be permitted by U.S. fair use laws.

That leads to a second problem. The DMCA requires anyone sending a takedown notice to state "under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."

If it was in fact only a three-second excerpt, Geller is facing potential legal liability. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is taking advantage of this possible vulnerability -- and seizing a chance to make it a public lesson -- by filing a lawsuit in federal court in northern California on behalf of Brian Sapient. (That's the nom de plume of the fellow whose YouTube account was suspended.) The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, asks for an injunction against Geller, damages, and attorneys fees.

The Skeptic's Dictionary says this of Geller: "He calls himself a psychic and has sued several people for millions of dollars for saying otherwise. His psychic powers were not sufficient to reveal to him, however, that he would lose all the lawsuits against his critics."

It is an article regarding that fraud Uri Geller fraudulantly using the DMCA against our beloved friends the Ration Response Squad and how Uri got Brian Sapient's YouTube account suspended. The best part is the the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is backing Brian! This is awesome to see on this famous British IT news site!